Before the Legislative Branch, Peruvian press was already the group with which the then presidential candidate, Pedro Castillo, had a rough relationship that with the passage of time and several attempts has not changed or improved much. The most recent rejection of the attitude of the head of state towards men and women of the press comes from the same National Society of Radio and Television (SNRTV) that criticized the most recent request for rectification by a journalist submitted by the same president.
“On April 12, 2022, the president of the republic, Mr. Pedro Castillo Terrores, addressed a notarial letter to the director and host of the “Panorama” program, Mrs. Roxana Cueva Mejía, urging her to rectify herself on a news event that, based on the corresponding evidence, would link him to an entrepreneur who, in partnership with several Chinese companies, have won millionaire contracts with the current government”, reads as the first motivation for the publication of the letter.
SNRTV assures that this fact obliges them to speak out again since it is a serious attack on freedom of expression and the right to information in Peru that the head of state threatens a woman of the press to denounce criminally if the requested rectification does not proceed. For the entity that published the statement, Pedro Castillo and his government would be to blame for the context of acute and widespread political crisis.
COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP
“The continued attacks and confrontational tone of the president and his prime minister against the independent press. This is warned daily, not only in the face of the systematic refusal of the president and his ministers to give statements to the press, there is also physical abuse against our reporters,” says the publication regarding the mistreatment recorded on cameras by state security personnel.
“The events described constitute a situation of siege and direct attack on freedom of expression that we have to defend with the means that provide a national and international rule of law,” says the National Society of Radio and Television in the document issued.
A statement by the Ombudsman's Office was also used to support the position of SNRTV. This is an office in which the head of State is emphasized that the notarial letter sent to the host of “Panorama” “violates article 2, paragraph 4 of the Constitution, which establishes as fundamental rights the freedoms of information and expression by any means of social communication without prior authorization or censorship or any impediment”.
It should be recalled that during the first six months of Pedro Castillo's presidency, Pedro Castillo preferred not to give interviews and limited his participation with the accompanying press in his official activities. It was not until January 2022 that a first round of interviews was launched; however, this ended up harming the president because of how controversial these meetings were, the most talked about being the conversation with CNN's journalist Fernando del Rincón in Spanish.
SNRTV concluded its statement by warning that they will continue to be vigilant and vigilant “to denounce acts of corruption that may be incurred by any public official, regardless of their position, power they represent or political group to which they belong.” So far, President Pedro Castillo has not announced a new round of interviews to comment on or respond to what happened after the crisis caused by the price hike or the denunciations of those who belong to his closest environment.
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